Westworld Interim Thoughts – Discussion Points

While I compile my next Reminder Recap, I wanted to throw a couple of extra thoughts at all of you, dear readers, to tide us all over until the weekend. (Here’s to hoping there aren’t any definitive answers to any of these in the upcoming episode before which I’m writing this!)

Do you think anyone we’ve been told is human is a host? We’ve seen the evolution of various hosts’ memories and personalities over the past few episodes, including certain hosts remembering each other across not only different days in the park, but in previous versions of the park itself. What if, say, Elsie’s attraction toward the prostitute host Clementine is a holdover from a past life where they were designed to love each other? This would explain things a bit, being as Elsie, insofar as we have seen, seems to be a hardliner about the hosts being simple, inhuman machines. Why would she open herself up like that otherwise?

Elsie kisses Clementine during her maintenance cycle. Image taken from http://blog.lesbianmedia.tv/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Shannon-Woodward-and-Angela-Sarafyan-Kiss-from-Westworld.jpg

Do any of you feel that the hosts (at least some of them) may already be more than machines already? Do you think that some of them may be partially human, or contain the remains/memories of passed humans known to the programmers? What are hosts “hosts” of, if that term doesn’t fit their role in the park perfectly? (Thanks to Candice for this one).

Dolores in maintenance mode.

Do you believe that Dr. Ford’s business partner, Arnold, is still alive somewhere out in the park? It was a given that he explored and knew the park better than anyone, and that he was more comfortable interacting with hosts than with real people. Do you believe he could be Ed Harris’s Man in Black, or that the Man in Black could be an aspect of him?

Ed Harris as the Man in Black

What is the maze? Why does it exist, since it seems to violate the MMORPG-style rules of the park by existing?

The maze and an incomplete host.

Please keep the discussion lively in the comments below! Thank you all for reading, and don’t forget to come back this weekend for my next Westworld post.

Former English teacher and writing tutor; fan of comics, books, video games, whiskey, and beer. Co-founder and co-owner of Blue Spider Press, LLC and Blue Spider's Attic monthly subscription box. Check us out at www.bluespiderpress.com and www.bluespidersattic.com.

4 comments

Host seems an appropriate term since visitors are guests, so I don’t consider that term necessarily incongruous for theme park usage. I don’t think the robots are to be considered hosts in the biological sense.

Since the show has a fair amount of religious symbolism built in, the phrase “heavenly hosts” comes to mind, but I don’t know how strong we’re supposed to associate the androids with angels, if at all.

Some of the questions posed, like if Arnold is still alive in the park, or are any of the hosts already more than machines, are difficult to answer since there seems to be evidence that we’re seeing the park from more than one timeline reference. So sure. Some hosts might already be operating in some self aware way, and later n the same episode, not be aware.

The maze appears to be a backdoor, or maybe an unreleased narrative without enough beta-testing to smooth out things. Harris’ Bad Hombre seems to know about this back door, and wants to exploit it.

Good reply all around. I’ve heard of some MMOs including little incomplete side areas that work like Easter Eggs or tributes, but I found it interesting that pursuing the maze seems to completely unravel the central narrative of Westworld and make hosts act differently. And in furtherance of one of your other points, I wonder if holding onto that religious symbolism will be worthwhile, especially considering the comparisons between Dolores and the Horseman of Death I made on the last recap. Thanks for coming by!

These are really interesting ideas I hadn’t considered before! You make a good point about Elsie and Clementine. I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, since we don’t really get to know Elsie until later — so I kind of forgot about how out of character that kiss was! The idea that Elsie could be a former host is really intriguing.

I also hadn’t thought Arnold could still be alive, but I love the connection you make to the Man in Black. I don’t know if they are connected in some way (or the same person), but now that you mention it, I wouldn’t be surprised by that kind of a twist!

Thank you for stopping by and commenting again. I definitely hope to keep good discussion about the show going as new episodes come out. I haven’t been this into digging into a show’s guts since Battlestar Galactica was entering its last season. I think we need to keep an eye on Elsie, especially since this moment has never been revisited since the first episode. And I imagine the reality of the Man in Black will be come upon us explosively before too long. Fingers crossed I might be right in some of my suspicions. 😉

Most of the time, crossovers between fictional properties are the stuff of fanfiction. In comics, though, they’re a longstanding tradition. In some cases, like with Star Trek, there are comics based on ...

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